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Hightower was my thoughts exactly! I'm 6'3", I have the seat reclined a bit (partly because I'm uber cool, partly because I have gorilla arms) but unlike my other recent cars - Corolla, Pug 206 - I don't have to have the seat all the way back - in fact I'd say I have it about 4-5 notches forward. I can get a friend in the back, admittedly a short woman. At 6'8", I probably wouldn't expect to get anyone in the back, but if you're going to fit in any small car, it'll probably be a Fiesta :)

Well I'm with Elephant (Who own/are owned by Admiral) and they charged me £20 for my alloys. Always worth asking and I believe they can even sort this out over email. Make sure they get it right though - on my previous car they put the alloys down as transmission modifications. FWIW I'm a 23 y/o with 3 years no claims - my insurance was £400 this year, all mods declared. On the second point, I believe there is some good information on the boards if you search - I have none as mine came fitted and all I had to do was change the bulbs.

I fitted mine a few weeks ago. It's not technically demanding or complicated at all but you do need nimble fingers. The pedals are held on by rubber 'surrounds' - these have large tabs attached which you will need to pull to stretch the surrounds to fit over the pedal. It's tricky and I swore alot, but it one of the easiest things I've done. Brute force and experimentation to find the right angle helps. Oh, and you will also need to remove the existing pedal rubbers. This is easy, again brute force and ignorance are your friends.

I've always just given the surface a damned good cleaning first, to shift as much of the big bits as I can, played with the clay a bit to make it a bit more malleable, then lube up and go (that's what she said)! I'm told light pressure and repetitive circular motion is best, but I'm sure there are some people far more advanced than yours truly at detailing on here who could give you a proper how to. In my experience, claying is one of the easier things that can be done, though!

I'm sure a good claying would get rid of the rough feel. Although my paint is hardly pristine, after claying and glazing my paintwork feels like glass :) the poorboys blackhole stuff is pretty nifty, although needs a good sealant or wax to keep it on any length of time. As for scratches and swirls... That's beyond my powers and I'm unwill to make the expenditure on a machine polisher! EDIT: I forgot to mention - the black hole glaze is actually used to mask light swirls and scratches, so could be of some help to you.

I live very close to and work on 2 US Air Force bases (My dad is actually a yank; I like to think of myself as a hybrid) and you would not BELIEVE some of the behaviour around here. When the airmen get stationed over here they are warned about roundabouts (they call them 'traffic cirles') and 'crazy brit drivers' and are banned from overtaking. There are quite a few fatalities around here caused by - how should I put this - 'enthusiastic' young drivers in extremely quick souped up Mustangs etc. It is an absolute NIGHTMARE trying to predict what they are going to do, and you end up having to drive under the assumption that everyone in an American spec car is actively trying to engage in vehicular combat - and that would be a short battle indeed. I'm fairly certain a Dodge Ram could snort up a Fiesta and spit out little Fiesta cubes.

Out of sheer curiosity I asked Elephant if I could put HIDs on my car, fully expecting a berating for asking to illegally modify my car and they said they'd charge me an extra £13.15 a year. Sounded a bit arbitrary to me, so I asked to be put through to a person who specialises in mods (the chap I spoke to wasn't the most clued up) and another chap confirmed the price, and I spelt out to them that I'd be replacing the normal headlights with HID lights, NOT changing the actual lamp enclosure - he said he'd get back to me with confirmation. Sure enough, they called me back the next day and said it was all legit, and would I like to do it. I was fairly confused because as far as I was aware, an HID couldn't be certified / e-marked / whatever, unless it was in an actual projector enclosure designed for HIDs - otherwise it didn't meet part of the spec. I outlined this to the guy on the phone who said it would be ok. I haven't actually changed my lights to HID, but it did give me food for thought. Then again, this is the insurance company that put my alloys on my previous car down as transmission modifications..!

Cheers muchly! Only problem with places like this is that now I'm eyeing up other things that 'need' doing to my car! Probably going to be an expensive endeavour. EDIT: Oh, and the BT box is holding up nicely ;) Ford didn't like it when I told them I'd sorted the problem for a 1/3rd of their 'goodwill' price..!

So I finally got round to de-tango'ing the tardis - I've had the headlamps out numerous times experimenting with different headlights and sidelights but always ignored the indications - BUT NO LONGER! Tango No tango! Tango Tango be gone! The rears weren't much hassle to change, once I figured out how. The fronts however.... If I ever have to change one of those again I shall probably cry. Or buy another car. What a pain. My hands aren't the smallest so getting any leverage on that ridiculous plastic prong is just a nightmare. Someone at Ford needs to be publicly beaten for inflicting that on unsuspecting people. Also, I did intend to de-tango the side repeaters but couldn't for the life of me figure out how the mirror cap comes off. I tried brute force and ignorance, in the vague directions indicated by the manual but felt like I was going to break the mirror off the hinge before the cap came off! The day turned out to be quite nice (despite the rain earlier) so decided it also needed a quick seeing too. I clayed it the day before so had a nice surface from which to work. The results:- I used Megs Gold Class for soap, Poorboys black hole glaze and natty paste wax, AG fast glass, Megs trim detailer for the plastics and poorboys on the tyres. Unfortunately the previous owner wasn't too careful and the car has a plethora of swirls, so if anyone knows of a good detailer in the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire area, let me know. ~M

Done a bit of googling and not really seen any one else with this problem, but hopefully you lot can help. Basically, both pieces of trim on the side of the windscreen have come loose, mainly from the edge nearest the roof. They flap in the wind and are really starting to bug me. I suspect a plastic clip of some sort has snapped but I haven't been able to find a replacement so if someone knows the part number that would be amazing (The Ford garage I got the car from is useless) and also, if anyone knows how these come off/go back on that would be sterling! Cheers, ~M